buying an old car.

[greenquark]

A friend of mine wants to buy a car for "transportation" the daily commute. I advised him to buy either honda or toyota. He is willing to spend up to 1000 ish bucks

How many miles in a car is considered a no no? 200 000 ?

Any advise I can get from people here?

[H311RA151N]

For $1000 expect to be lenient or look for a while. It can be done, I do it all the time. Just depends on how desperate you are. Can't get a $5000 car for $1000. But you can sometimes get a $1500 or $1800 car for $1000 if you are patient. Or you can get a $300 car for $1000 in you are not patient.

I try to make deals with people I know. You get the best deals that way for many reasons.

It's opinion to an extent but Honda's and Toyota's are generally good choices. IMO if there is anything that will outlast a Honda it's a Toyota.

[XCRN]

Friend of mine spent $400 on a 79 Corvette that only had a leaking caliper. Though he did not spend that money directly on a Corvette, he bought a Quad and traded it for a Blazer, traded that for something, traded that for a late 90s Firebird, traded that for a Jeep, then traded that for the Corvette. All of this took 1.5 months. He is now starting the process over for a fifth Corvette with a lawn mower.

If you know your local market well you can start with a $500 Geo and end up with a newer Mustang or something.

[H311RA151N]

I have two friends that trade every year with their tax money and end up with damn near nothing by the end of summer.

IMO, every time you buy/trade you run the risk of getting fucked over. There is a certain percentage of risk you run with each buy/trade. The more you buy/trade the more your chances of getting fucked over go up.

The only way to do it and do it successfully is to know a little bit about everything. I'm not a gambling man. So of course I am against it. But, they say if you wanna win big you gotta play big. But I'd rather get what I pay for and call it good. That's just me.

[XCRN]

He just seems to know a lot about GM, he even offered me to help turn my BMW into a Corvette but I really like my car.

Maybe a motorcycle would not be a bad idea. I was half way tempted to do that when I was living in WA since insurance was not required for motorcycles and I think there may be a few other states that may do that. Geos would not be a bad idea for that purpose either. I have seen many 50k mile Geos for less than $2000.

[Andrewasoar]

Not trying to push a sale or anything.

However if you're close to the new england area check out my north east post in the classifieds. It's worth a glance. Thank you and good luck with the search!

[H311RA151N]

Not trying to push a sale or anything.

However if you're close to the new england area check out my north east post in the classifieds. It's worth a glance. Thank you and good luck with the search!

Got a link? I'm not finding it.

[greenquark]

I wish, I am in Canada....very nice cb7's I have seen around the north east ...it is a shame all the paper work to import cars up here... I did importa mine, and not a good experience

[illinois_erik]

the way i look at it a cheap car will need maintenance, I usually factor a 1000$ car will need 1000$ worth of parts/labor, less if you do it all yourself. Pay more to spend less now this doesnt always hold true but will 90% of the time. ie: cherry accord sitting in a grannys garage 15 years for 1200 bucks.. yeah. but youll probably need new brakes and lines all around, all hoses replaced, timing job, plugs..probably gaskets/seals all around, tires, it adds up quick but youre left with a great end result. or 500$ shit box, probably the same course of treatment unless you only expect to get 6 or so months of usage out of it and drive it as is into the ground.

[wed3k]

man id get one of those jeeps with a 4.0, not so good on gas mileage but those things run

[sonikaccord]

Can you or your friend work on cars? If not, pay a little more for a car that actually has maintenance records.

[TheFunk]

In the $1000 price range you're basically relying on luck because you can find some solid cars for $1000 and you can also get some serious shit for the same price.

Strategy is key.

I had a $300 Sentra last 100k miles... Had no reverse and only 2 extremely wide working gears. Sold it eventually for $300 to someone who put a new tranny in it and still drives it today.
Also had a $600 Altima for a year, only needed new throttle body gasket and wheels aligned. Stripped out the knock sensor bolt and sold it for $1650.
Don't know if I'd recommend either car to purchase, even in working order... But they got me from A to B and were within budget.

80-90 would be a good year for your price range imo.

[Losiracer2]

you can find good deals for under 1k.

I got my DD CB for 700, it needed an axle and a alt. belt. Both of which I had as spare parts at home.

In the 3 yrs and 50k miles I've had it, i've put maybe 2500 total into it, including maintenance except oil changes.

[greenquark]

I can help him to do some mechanics but not heavy stuff.

He decided on a civic 1999 at 1000. It was 1300. The civic looks ok. I drove it around no noises, no direction problems, no transmission jerks , so far so good. We took it to the mechanic, and the only problem was the subframe underneath (it is a beam that goes from side to side just behind the front wheel position) is RUSTED. My friend wants the car to drive it for a year or so. The mechanic said they could do some welding.

I told him to be patient but he bought it anyways.

[sonikaccord]

Can't that be replace with a junk yard part? and isn't the steering rack bolted to that?